The Girlfriend Experience - 2009 - Dir. Soderbergh

Another one of Soderbergh's more experimental films. Low-budget. Non professional actors. I don't think I liked it as much as Bubble. It's not bad. An incredibly muted film. Grey seems to know what she's doing as far as tone is concerned. She barely emotes. I'm under the impression she knows what she's doing. She emotes now and then, but the majority of her scenes calls for her to be kind of flat, with a minimum of interest. She's basically pretending to be interested, you know like an escort. The film does feel a little vague in a sense. It doesn't seem to take a strong stance towards what it shows us, and it doesn't tell us so much of a story like Bubble. So we're left with something that feels a little vapid or empty. I do like thinking of it as an experimental drama. While it isn't INTENSELY experimental, it doesn't tell the story in the usual sense. Chris Santos is a pretty good supporting player. He manages to be a whore without being a huge whore. It's also kind of neat to hear all the recession stuff, so soon and being tied into an Escort storyline. I especially liked the scenes of the dudes in the private plane on the way to Vegas. It does neat things, it just doesn't feel like a terribly strong film as a whole.

Hey look, It's Sasha Grey. In that picture that is everywhere.

The Informant! - 2009 - Dir. Soderbergh

Heck, I was pretty surprised by The Informant! I feel like I even had a good idea of what I was in for. Hell, I DID have a good idea. And I wasn't wrong. I guess, Soderbergh just goes so far into the musak aesthetics of the movie, it's a blaring announcement of goofiness. From the soap opera camera lens to the color to Matt Damon's RIDICULOUS voice over. You know, these days, people have been doing some pretty sneaky stuff with voice over and I've gotten a real kick out of all of it (BOLD STATEMENT!). I was pretty consistently pleased by the movie, by Damon, and in Soderbergh's insistence on making the film this specific way. It falls in the category of a movie more like Bubble than Ocean's 11. He's being quirkier than he is dashing. And yes, the movie drags a little bit. It's not a polished gem by any means. But it's entertaining. It's funny. Damon is charming and uncomfortable at the same time and manages to balance that load throughout the movie. It may not have left as much of a mark as I might have wanted and as much as the preview might have led me to believe. I would give it a second viewing and imagine I might like it more, which has got to be a positive thing.

Matt Damon is an excellent listener.

Solaris - 2002 - Dir. Soderbergh

Okay, close your eyes... Now picture the original Solaris. Except now as an American production with a director respectful of the source material. Have it made in saaaay... 2002. What you are picturing is exactly what the movie is. You can now decide if you want to go see it. Naturally, it's shorter. Less atmospheric. On the other hand, it makes more of a point to persue the story of the original. I can't say the STORY was my favorite part of the original, but hey, I'm not gonna act like it isn't an interesting plot. Everyone fits their counterpart very well, never mimicking them by any means but it's generally a very modern interpretation. And of course, no one is really that old in the film. I mean, Jeremy Davies does his goofy eccentric scientist schtick, which I really will probably never get tired of, and it does work well on a spaceship of nutjobs. I can't say I was a BIGGER fan of the streamlined version. I think I preferred the original but there is something certainly to be said for Soderbergh's version and I wouldn't be surprised if many people preferred it over the original.

A rare moment of Jeremy Davies not acting with his arms.

sex, lies, and videotape - 1989 - Dir. Soderbergh

Independent cinema fella Soderbergh started his slow growth upon Hollywood with Sex, Lies, and Videotape, a giant super indie celebration. An all right film, I think surprisingly muted and restrained considering the subject matter but maybe I just have a tendency to think a little more... extravagantly. Certainly not my favorite of Soderbergh's but a interesting enough entry and it's easy to see how it could have made such an impression almost twenty years ago. Even back when he loved having dialogue run over other scenes and it still brings a sly smile to my face. The Man can edit. Everyone is dandy in the movie. Giacomo sometimes lays the bitterness on a little thick but apart from that I would say it was all dandy. I was especially surprised considering I'm really not much of an Andie McDowell fan. I might say I felt Spader's character felt a little more vague than I was happy with... or maybe just underdeveloped and I can't get behind the peachy-keen-ness of the ending. Things basically work out for everyone but Peter Gallagher. As well they shouldn't! Shame on you, Peter Gallagher. Shame on you.

Yeeeaaahhh! ... YEAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Schizopolis - 1996 - Dir. Soderbergh

Oh man! All right, Steven Soderbergh! You win! Don't brag about it! Lemme alone now! That doesn't mean I'm watching Erin Brockovich or something. I'll probably check out Solaris, I guess. But Schizopolis was tons more fun than I really expected it to be. I expected a kind of tongue-in-cheek movie with some giggles. But there was some really wacky stuff in the movie. There is something in the film that feels distinctly cathartic. I mean, he plays three different roles in the film. Like Soderbergh is basically onscreen for most of the movie. I mean, there's a scene of him making faces in the mirror. And I think that's pretty fucking cool. And you know, it seems perfectly appropriate that he plays this role. So it's definitely his spawn. And I dunno, I guess I didn't really mind the self-serving aspects of the film. I know the opening and end comments weren't in the original cut. They probably do help achieve a kind of tone for the film. You sort of know that the film is going to whip you around and basically do what they please. It's prone to random bits of goofiness. Generally unrestrained. It does feel a little bit like Monty Python with its meandering type plot and a love of generally unrelated sequences. People being interviewed. Foreign language overdubs. The movie is basically a big fat blender of everything. Sure it might be fairly self-serving. But hell, I loved it!

The best part of the movie!

Bubble - 2006 - Dir. Soderbergh

I dunno. I never really had much interest in this movie. When it was released, I kind of just figured Soderbergh was a big asshole. Even though, the DVD release idea I thought was pretty neat. But I dunno, after seeing the Limey, I was all "Hey! I'll check out what this guy might have up his sleeve after all!" My opinion of these kind of muted films may have changed since 2006. It was more engrossing than I originally expected. And honestly, I'm a little respectful of Soderbergh... he does seem to switch off between low budget indies and big dumb hollywoodfests like the Ocean's trilogy (Man, to think its a trilogy). He seems like a busy guy, releasing a lot of films on both end. I mean, Bubbles didn't exactly blow me away. But it's a damn good movie. And considering the way he made it, pretty damn interesting. Running at a nice and sveldt 72 minutes certainly had a lot to do with my enjoyment. He tells all the right parts of the story. Leaving us satisfied and not bored. Which MUST be tough with an improvised script and "non-professional" actors. All of which definitely seem to know what Soderbergh was doing in the film. They establish a really strong sense of rhythm to carry us through the film. And you know, I like it when movies are made for cheap. I like it even better when they're made well. Bubble certainly has its mesmerizing moments. I'm torn by a few of the sequences with the acoustic underneath... but those're minor complaints at best.

Nah, this ain't creepy! Why you gotta say this is creepy?

The Limey - 1999 - Dir. Soderbergh

I was really surprised by The Limey. I generally don't think very much Soderbergh but the movie got off to a BIG START with a lot of really disjointed editing. Disjointed in perhaps the best way possible. Editing together reaction shots from past or future scenes. Screwing with the chronology of conversations. Ambient sounds moved into different scenes. All to a really great effect! I'm not exactly sure even how to describe it. It certainly won me over pretty quickly. The movie also has a lot of interesting references to the 60's and counter-culture. The whole third act takes place in Big Sur, which is very well perhaps one of my more favorite places that comes to mind. The two stars, Terrence Stamp and Peter, Fonda are representative figures of English and American 60's counter culture, butt heads but, of course, are all too alike. Leaving us with a nicely poignant climax. An appropriate mix of quirk and machismo round out what I found to be a surprisingly smart gangster/revenge film. ALSO: For Terrence Stamp's flash backs, Soderbergh used footage of an early film he was in. Which I thought was just incredible!

I'm ACTIIIIIIIIINNNGGGGGGG!!!!